The Institute of Race Relations is at the cutting edge of the research and
analysis that inform the struggle for racial justice in Britain, Europe and
internationally.

External newsAgainst Racism, for Social Justice

About the service

This is a free news service on race and refugee issues in the UK and Europe. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter or sign up for our free weekly email service. View the IRR’s comments policy here.

Ex-soldier Michael Ross who murdered Shamsuddin Mahmood in 1994 has failed in a bid to have his conviction re-examined by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission after being convicted of murder in 2008. Michael Ross was 15 at the time he shot a 26-year-old Bangladeshi waiter in the head in an Orkney restaurant full of diners.

A security guard, Mame Kamara, has claimed police treated him unfairly after he was racially abused by a couple at the nightclub where he worked. As a result he was arrested and charged. The charges were later dropped but not before he had lost his job.

A 19-year-old Asian man was seriously injured in an unprovoked racist attack leaving him requiring hospital treatment. The attack was carried out by two men in Greenhills, Glasgow on the 8 July at approximately 7pm.

The High Court has declined to order the Home Office to suspend the detained fast track process or release of asylum seekers held under it. It was found to be unlawful after a case brought by Detention Action who argued that it left asylum seekers at an unfair disadvantage and unable to access lawyers quickly.

A Cleveland Black Police Association report which found institutional racism in the force, resulted in the force referring itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The IPCC has nowreferred the complaint back to Cleveland Police to investigate itself.

The grieving families of Jean Charles de De Menezes, Cherry Groce and Ricky Reel have been subject to ‘inappropriate’ surveillance by the Metropolitan Police’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). A new report claims such surveillance ‘served no purpose in preventing crime or disorder’.

Six years after an initial study was conducted by the London School of Economics (LSE) further research by Channel 4 News has found that students of BME backgrounds and prospective students from lower social class groups were still disadvantaged in higher education.

The use of 20 immigration officers to arrest Isabella Acevedo at Haringay town hall has been criticised by Keith Vaz MP. Acevedo, a Colombian, had worked as a cleaner for seven years for Mark Harper, a government minister.

Concerns have been raised over a new Channel 4 show ‘Immigration Street’ (a follow up to ‘Benefits Street’) and how the show will portray immigration. The show will be filmed in Derby Street, Southampton. A public meeting has been organised to discuss the ‘dangers’ of the show.

Adam Walker has replaced Nick Griffin as the leader of the British National Party. The change came after the British National Party suffered poor election results. Adam Walker has also been banned for life from teaching after verbally abusing three pupils and slashing their bike tyres.

Hundreds of court cases requiring interpreters have been disrupted so far this year as outsourcing firm Capita has continued to fall short of its contractual requirements. The company has a performance target of fulfilling 98 per cent of the requests for interpreters that it receives.

Two HMP Full Sutton prisoners, Bret Atkins and Jamie Snow, will be sentenced later this year after incendiary devices and racist letters which they sent from their prison to solicitors in West Yorkshire and Lancashire were intercepted by guards. The letters were said to express ‘deeply racist and Anti-Muslim views'.

Sergeant Charles Pilbeam has denied two charges of common assault at Westminster magistrates’ court. The officer is accused of abusing a mentally ill Somali man who was allegedly pulled by the ear and dragged to the floor with the phrase ‘Welcome to Hackney’.

Human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar has called the police complaints procedure in Scotland ‘farcical’, after new figures revealed that out of hundreds of complaints about racist behaviour in the last five-and-a-half years, only nine were upheld.

Police are investigating after members of Britain First visited mosques in Gillingham, Kent to oppose plans for a new place of worship. The far-right group also visited Crayford Mosque in south east London, demanding that they remove signs for separate entrances for men and women.

Places

About the service

This is a free news service on race and refugee issues in the UK and Europe. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter or sign up for our free weekly email service. View the IRR’s comments policy here.